This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-75152, filed Nov. 29, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wall-mounted microwave ovens, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted microwave oven which has an enhanced blowing capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a microwave oven is an appliance which cooks food using a magnetron. During a cooking process, a magnetron of the microwave oven generates high-frequency electromagnetic waves. The microwaves penetrate food so as to repeatedly change the molecular arrangement of moisture laden in the food, thus causing the molecules of moisture to vibrate and generate a frictional heat within the food to cook the food. A wall-mounted microwave oven is a microwave oven which is installed above a cooking apparatus, such as a gas oven range in a kitchen space, and collaterally serves as a hood to exhaust contaminated air produced from the cooking apparatus.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven which is mounted to a wall of a kitchen space above a gas oven range (not shown). The wall-mounted microwave oven collaterally serves to exhaust gases or odors of food produced from the gas oven range positioned below the wall-mounted microwave oven, in addition to cooking food in a cooking chamber (not shown) therein.
The conventional wall-mounted microwave oven includes a cabinet 1 which defines an external appearance of the microwave oven. The cabinet 1 is partitioned into the cooking chamber and a machine room 2 in which various electrical devices are installed. An exhaust fan unit 3 is provided on an upper portion of the cabinet 1 so as to be positioned above the cooking chamber and the machine room 2. The exhaust fan unit 3 discharges air contaminated with exhaust gases and odors of food, which are produced from the gas oven range, to the outside of the microwave oven.
The exhaust fan unit 3 is mounted to a rear position of the upper portion of the cabinet 1, and includes a fan motor (not shown) and an exhaust fan 4. The fan motor generates a rotating force. The exhaust fan 4 is rotated by the fan motor to generate a blowing force. The exhaust fan unit 3 is operated to upwardly discharge the contaminated indoor air, which passes through the cabinet 1, using the blowing force of the exhaust fan 4.
However, where a large capacity exhaust fan and a large capacity fan motor are used to enhance a blowing capability of the exhaust fan unit 3, the sizes of the exhaust fan and fan motor are inevitably increased. In this case, to maintain the overall size of the cabinet 1, the heights of the cooking chamber and the machine room 2 must be reduced. Accordingly, the capacity of the cooking chamber is undesirably reduced.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted microwave oven which is designed to prevent a capacity of a cooking chamber from being reduced even where a large capacity exhaust fan unit is provided to the microwave oven.
Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and for other aspects of the present invention, there is provided a wall-mounted microwave oven which communicates with an exhaust duct of a cooking space, comprising a cabinet which defines an external appearance of the microwave oven, an internal duct which is provided in the cabinet and communicates with the exhaust duct provided outside the cabinet, a heating unit which is provided in the cabinet to cook food, and an exhaust fan unit which is installed in the external duct and generates a blowing force that circulates indoor air through the internal and external ducts.
The microwave oven may further comprise an air inlet port which is provided on a bottom surface of the cabinet and receives the contaminated indoor air provided therebelow, and an air outlet port which is provided on an upper surface of the cabinet and outputs the contaminated indoor air thereabove, wherein the internal duct connects the air inlet port to the air outlet port.
The exhaust fan unit may include a fan motor which generates a rotating force, an exhaust fan which generates the blowing force using the rotating force, and a fan casing which receives the fan motor and the exhaust fan therein.
The fan casing may include two air sucking holes which are provided on both side surfaces of the fan casing and receive the contaminated indoor air discharged from the air outlet port, and an air discharging hole which is provided on one of an upper surface, a front surface, and a rear surface of the fan casing, and discharges the contaminated air to the exhaust duct.
The exhaust fan unit may be installed at a position adjacent to the internal duct, so as to easily transmit the blowing force generated by the exhaust fan unit to the internal duct.